49PointsGlocusent Horizontal ET-head Amber Book Light with CRI 95

Glocusent Horizontal ET-head Amber Book Light with CRI Specs

Almost every clip-on reading light points a small round lamp at the page and leaves you tilting the book to chase the bright spot. This one turns the head sideways. The lit surface is a wide horizontal bar, so the pool of light falls across the width of an open page instead of down the middle of it, and the three control buttons sitting in a row on that bar are what earned the thing its odd name.

Underneath the design quirk it is a cheap, small, rechargeable clip light with a folding gooseneck. Three color temperatures are on offer, each with its own set of brightness steps, and the 1800K amber setting is the one the product is built around, a deep orange that Glocusent markets as blocking almost all blue light for bedtime reading.

The details that matter once you own it are unglamorous. It remembers the mode you last used, so it does not start at full white every time. A half-hour timer switches it off if you fall asleep mid-chapter. It charges over USB-C, though no plug comes in the box, and the neck folds flat enough to live in a coat pocket.

The long battery figure applies at the dimmest setting only. Run it at full brightness and you get a tenth of that, by Glocusent's own figures. For the money, the horizontal bar is still a better idea than the spotlight it replaces.

Glocusent Horizontal ET-head Amber Book Light with CRI 95

Category strengths

LightBatteryDesign
49VS Score

Where the Glocusent Horizontal ET-head Amber Book Light with CRI 95 beats the median

  • A lighter build ?40 g vs 50 g (median)
How this VS Score was computed

Score 49: each known spec is measured against the median of book lights (9 products), then weighted. 54% of the scoreable weight could be used. See how we score

SpecificationThis productCohort medianScore weightPoints moved
Brightness25 — capped at the class’s lower range (50)62.51.5−15.0
Weight40501+13.0
LED count10110.3−1.5
Brightness levels550.7+0.0
Color temperature modes331+0.0
Warmest color temperature1,8001,8000.5+0.0
Battery life80801.5+0.0
Light heads110.3+0.0

Not scored: Stepless dimming (unknown: not scored); Amber light mode (standard for the class (88% have it)); Flicker-free (standard for the class (100% have it)); Memory function (standard for the class (100% have it)); Auto-off timer (standard for the class (100% have it)); Rechargeable (standard for the class (89% have it)); Battery capacity (capacity is a proxy; the rated battery life is scored instead); Charge time (too few comparable peers (2, need 3)); USB-C (standard for the class (88% have it)); Flexible neck (standard for the class (100% have it)); Clip opening (unknown: not scored); Touch control (not applicable: only 0% of this class have it).

Editor’s note

The buyer this is aimed at is obvious once you see it clipped to a paperback: someone who reads in bed next to a sleeping partner and wants as little spill as possible. The amber mode is dim and orange rather than a white light with a filter over it, and the wide head means you can aim it down at the page. If that is the problem you are solving, this is one of the few lights this cheap that solves it properly.

What I would check first is the clip. Glocusent does not publish how wide it opens, and a light designed around a slim paperback is not automatically happy on a hardback cover or a thick headboard rail. The gooseneck is long enough to compensate for a lot, but the jaw is the part that decides whether this works on your furniture, and the listing does not say.

The product page lists five brightness levels per mode, while the A18 manual says brightness and color temperature can also be adjusted steplessly. Either way, the lowest output Glocusent gives is the manual's 5 lumens, and a reader in a dark bedroom should judge the amber mode by that figure.

Glocusent's documentation is the weak point. The same listing quotes two different warranty lengths, two weights and two mid-range color temperatures, and the lumen range appears only in the manual. If you want the same maker with a different shape, the bookmark-style light is flatter and better for travel.

Specifications

How we score

Light

Brightness ?
25 lm
Brightness levels ?
5
Stepless dimming ?
? Unknown
Color temperature modes ?
3
Warmest color temperature ?
1,800 K
Amber light mode ?
✓Yes
Flicker-free ?
✓Yes
LED count ?
10
Memory function ?
✓Yes
Auto-off timer ?
✓Yes

Battery

Rechargeable ?
✓Yes
Battery capacity ?
650 mAh
Battery life ?
80 h
Charge time ?
2 h
USB-C ?
✓Yes

Design

Light type ?
Clip-on
Weight ?
40 g
Light heads ?
1
Flexible neck ?
✓Yes
Clip opening ?
? Unknown
Touch control ?
✗No
Colors ?
Black, White, Light Blue (US only), Lilac Purple (US only)

Sources and verification

Where the specifications come from

Verification

First published
Specifications last checked
Sheet completeness
20 of 22 specifications verified; the rest show as Unknown and are never estimated or scored
Page type
Product specification page — Compiled from the manufacturer’s published specifications and the cited sources; this is not a hands-on test.
Basis
Research-based: specifications and editorial text were compiled from the documents listed here and the manufacturer’s published data. We have not tested this unit ourselves; where independent measurements are mentioned they belong to the linked publication.

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The bottom line

The Glocusent Horizontal ET-head Amber Book Light with CRI 95 earns a VS Score of 49, below the median of the 9 book lights it is measured against (a score of 50 is level with that median).

Who it’s for
Bedtime readers who share a room and need a warm, low, well-aimed light that covers a whole page without waking anyone up.
Who should look elsewhere
Readers of heavy hardbacks who need a clip with a known jaw width, since Glocusent does not publish one.
The trade-off that matters
Amber light is kind to sleep but turns every color orange, so illustrated books and maps lose their color in the mode the light is built around.
The main alternative
Glocusent Upgraded Bookmark Style Reading Light: the same maker's flat, slip-in-the-book design, which travels better and disappears into a bag, at the cost of this one's wider beam.

See how we score

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